Blog

The vacation was supposed to be non-working. But when you are in design you cannot help but notice things.

Since my family (son is house builder, daughter doing an M.A. in Interactive Design, with the exception of my mother); share my interest and did not get impatient with me when I asked to stop the car so I could take some pictures and visit some retail stores.

I think the thing that impressed me the most were the bathrooms, and since I have done a few in my time, I am always looking for new ideas.

Most of the fixtures are imported from Italy and Germany, so they were streamlined and simple.

It has been a while since I have been in Europe and things have changed a lot, particularly in Croatia, so if I seem unusually excited please forgive me.

Last year I had the privilege of working on a rather large project and was able to order some of the products from Italy and Germany for the bathrooms, and it was nice to see some of the products and principals in use in the everyday bathroom that I used in my project last year.

The things that impressed me the most was the tank-less toilet. These toilets are space saving, water saving, totally hygienic, very esthetic, and highly efficient. They are in all the public areas as well as private homes.

If you want to upgrade your bathroom and create some space, and not to mention the WOW FACTOR, this is the way to go.

The other item was the soap dispenser. Wall mounted again, with a container, so you can fill it with liquid soap, no mess on the counter and great if a lot of people are using the bathroom.

I also noticed that they had similar containers for the shower, it dispenses the right amount of shampoo, no bottles to deal with and keeps the clutter down.

I have done some research since my return, and both the tank-less toilet and soap dispensers are available in Canada. If you have any question, don't hesitate to ask, and I can provide you with the information for both.

Another one of my pet peeves is lighting, I did find some lighting and have contacted the companies to see if they would be suitable for our system. Especially the outdoor lights. I fell in love with this one, in the seaside resort of Opatija (Croatia). Originally, it had a copper finish, and now with this beautiful patina. I am on the hunt!

It has been an amazing trip and as such the two weeks have gone by quickly. My son was only able to stay one week, but we got the family reunions visits done while he was here.

I didn’t think the visit to Croatia would be so overwhelming!

We went to the town where I was born and visited a familiar little book shop, on the day that we were there the father of the man who owned the shop was on duty. We started to chat and I told him I was born in the town and the purpose of the visit. He asked me who I was and he said, “Well, I remember your family well and the impact that they made on the community while they lived here.” It was as though it was only a few years ago that we left. On October 17th, 2010, it will be 50 years.

He is a few years older, and we were playmates as children. He is now a journalist and has written books on the area. He gave us the book of Lapin, and showed us many places from my childhood. It was so overwhelming I cried the whole time he was talking. The same when we went to the village where my parents were from. There were 60 plus houses at one time. Now there are only 4, the rest devastated by all the wars. The last war in the 90’s almost wiped out the entire community.

We met some long-lost relatives and had an incredibly grand time. The word got out and they arraigned a major celebration and we had over 40 people at the picnic in our honour, wow!

These things we will never, ever forget. And a new, friendly foundation for my kids when they come back to visit.

I was totally re-inspired and have a thousand new ideas, hopefully enough time to do them all. I’ll be bringing back some jewellery made in Croatia. They will be posted soon and we’ll show some pictures and tell you all about my trip to Croatia when I get back.

This will be the last blog for a few weeks while I go on Vacation to visit my Homeland of Croatiawith my family.

This adventure includes my 85 year old mother, my son from Kingston, and meeting up with my daughter who lives in Sweden.

This is the first trip back form my mother since 1959 and the first for my children to see their other roots. Exciting for all of us!!!

Updates and Notes…

- Ruth's kitchen backsplash is due to arrive while I am gone. Got a semi-confirmation.

- Mrs. Cools kitchen makeover is almost complete.

- You’ll be seeing Nancy's Headboard very soon.

There are few other projects on the go, a new bathroom to begin in September, and two Scavolini Kitchen installations in September. There will be lots of pictures to take and share!

I hope to do some shopping for the store while I am in Europe, it's been awhile since I have been there so we will see what goodies I come home with.

If you have any questions regarding Scavolini Kitchens please call my Toronto contact Noel George at 416-627-5284 and he’ll be happy to answer any questions, and if you need to see him, he’ll come to the Kingston area.